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sek you are aware that that causeway is not spider proof right? Mine isn't either but with the booster I go buy to fast for them to follow. Skeletons miss too.

Oh yeah, I'm well aware. In fact, since I probably have thousands of cobblestones at this point I might as well cover it. At any rate, with the two starting slopes, and well placed boosters I make the trip to quickly for enemies to mess with me.

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

Cool!

Do zombies etc swim? do they get out to your water fort?

Zombies get to the tree growing area at sea level, and could make it on the roof and I've even seen them spawn on top of my tower. I have an adequate interior space, with another bed, furnaces and door entrance to the pit itself.

I also built another portal at the Pit Mine Base (as it is know henceforth) since I have more Obsidian than I know what to do with (about 60 after building two portals and lining my home fireplace with them)

Eh, if I'm above ground I always sleep, not for fear of the mobs per se, but because the chances of dying to a creeper come daylight go up infinitely. I was working on my new fortress and went to bed slightly later than usual and the next morning I was nearly blown to smithereens just going down my stairs. It's ridiculous (and even if you're keen enough to hear the fuse, it's already too late).

Regarding portals the one built is for some reason at odds with the it's netherworld version; One's facing East/West, the Netherworld version is facing North/South. It's irritating.

---

sek, like the design of the island fortress, though I hope there's more to go on top yet.

I'm trying to see what the best way to record some video is, as pics of rails systems just don't cut it. People say Quicktime's screen recording ability is good enough. If it works I may have to give a tour.

sek, like the design of the island fortress, though I hope there's more to go on top yet.

You betcha, that first balcony area is going to be one of three. If I continue to head off in the same direction past The Pit Mine that fortress may serve as my main digs for a long time. At that point I'll probably plant some wheat on the upper balconies.

Right now making use of my three stories with glass ceilings and getting a lot of indoor wheat growing. Having two steel buckets (from the dungeon) has been so freaking awesome.

Basically the only thing I still pine for is much, much more Iron. I'm going to turn the defunct Obsidian pit (all lava was converted into Obsidian) at the halfway point into another deep pit mine. I enjoy riding my rails so much I want to make it way longer, if nothing else but fun.

Ok Dakar your on the whitelist, kevin has been for a while now but I haven't seen him online.
PM for the address. Let me know if it doesn't work, I did from mine but its not quite the same thing.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV

If you have anything you want imported send me the MCEdit schematic and coord / picture of were you want it and I can place it. It will mean stopping the server though.

Eh, I played with this weekend. The simple act of duplicating my relative small (~5 MB) map really taxed the system. While I don't need anywhere near all of it carried over online, it seems silly to start parallel worlds. I think I'd settle for gift basket of essentials and non-essentials
(Tools, bed, crafting table, furnace, torches, fuel, etc.)

Maybe I'll create that within the confines of my Borgia Tower (when I complete it) and make that a schematic.

I guess I'll just have to decide when I want to get online based on when the other two or three bozos want to give it a try.

Thats really cool. I think one major reason I've gotten so into Minecraft is that is very closely resembles the Legos I played with as a child (and every once and a while as an adult). In a world of mindless violent videogames, which I still love, Minecraft is an interesting creation-based world. I would even go so far as saying it would help develop spatial reasoning skills.

I haven't done much in the Nether past the very exit of my first portal, and that was only a small pit to gather Netherack. The whole time a goddamn ghast was squaking away above me, it was very unnerving. Couple that with the fact I appear to have been placed on a floating island of sorts (ground level seems to be 20 blocks down from me) and I really don't feel like getting anything going in the Nether.

Probably go through the second portal soon just to see where it leads.

Edit: Finished the Water Base Tower
That trail leading away from the Water Base is a new set of tracks leading to a 4th safe house. I have a large pit mine going again (7x13) and a connection through the other side of the hill of an already existing cave. A short distance from that caves exit is another natural surface cave that leads way down. I plan on having my tracks follow the path of these caves as I head deep inland.

I decided to get adventurous, I had run out of coal and needed a new source. So, I got lost again, died again, built another fort, died, and just kept hopping from hole in the ground to hole in the ground. Found cactus and pumpkin, no wheat yet. Finally found my old fort, but haz a sadness over the goodies I dropped in the wanderings.

You have to hoe grass to get the seeds for wheat. I actually figured that part out in the beginning all by myself. Its the only thing the hoe is used for.

I'm building an underground monster spawn. Got sidetracked for a few hours when I hit a lava pool and emptied it of its ~50 lava. It was in my way. I'm putting in the canals at the moment, I'll get a picture before I turn out the lights. Then I turn mobs on in the server.

Gunpowder makes TNT, which I've only used a few times in a mining experiment. The nice thing about my SSP grinder before is it caught both. Now I'll need to get grass to grow down to Y=25 where this one is to get passive mobs without running around with a sword.

I'm utterly disappointed with what I have thus far. I started off with a sloped glass structure that might've been nice if I'd built off the concept, but now the back of my castle/fortress/home/whatever looks like crap. I kept experimenting instead of planning, and things just spiraled out of control...

Don't feel bad, Jawbone, there's a reason I haven't posted my home base yet. It's a mis-mash of good design cobbled on top of the hole in the ground I dug my first few nights. AS long as it is functional at this point is all that matters. once you have enough raw materials you can build a second home proper, designing it from the get-go (like my water fortress). At any rate I really like the interior of your main floor.

First off, is there any reason to craft iron tools? Besides the damage increase of the sword I'm not seeing any reason to spend iron on anything other than tracks, minecarts, and buckets. I keep a diamond pickaxe at the ready for harvesting gold, diamond, coal, etc at lightning speed, but if I am doing any serious mining I'll make 4 pickaxes (stone) and once they all wear out it is time to empty my inventory anyways

Secondly, I had an odd problem in my newest base/mine, which I've nicknamed Awesome Mine (more about that next). In my small (at most 10x6) main floor I couldn't sleep because a skeleton or zombie kept spawning, and I assure you the area was secure. So I walled off a tiny (4x3) area, installed a door and STILL the damned creatures kept spawning. I eventually turned the bottom floor into a storage crafting area, and built a second floor to house my bed, which has worked fine despite being attached to the first floor via a staircase.

Thirdly, my new mine has been better than my wildest dreams. I was just about to stop playing for the night in my new pit mine, when I hit some redstone, which I've been ignoring now, but figured at that depth more goodies may be there. Heard a faint trickle of water and starting chewing my way through to it. Found two separate caves, both with water and Lava, tons of Obsidian (not mined yet) and thought "Well, looks like I should see what this area has to offer. Starting clearing the space and, wow, I must have found over 50 iron, 15 diamond, 20 Gold, and easily over a hundred coal....this is just added to the amount my pit already yielded. Every wall that I dug into, every crevice that I found was littered with coal and iron. I'd say the possible space is 20% clear at this point, with alot of lava area to be cleared (more diamond!). So now I've got iron out the ass, diamond out the ass, turned the gold into blocks to decorate with (what other use is there?), and enough coal to max out my 10 furnaces with lots more in storage (thats 640 coal in use at the moment). I had to stop because I could have easily stayed awake until morning mining out that area.

So my cart now takes me from the home base, past the water base, and into the first 'floor' of my pit mine. Next it will exit through the natural opening at the back of the first 'floor' and head off towards the adjacent surface cave. I finally have enough iron to make my wildest cart dreams a reality!

I wasn't trying to make him feel bad. Just sayin'. I do find the double-bed decadent. I'm also curious who he's brining home with him ("Mr. Netherworld Pigman, has anyone told you how beautiful your eyes look in the glowstone light?")

Speaking of bummed, though, I am sad your covered your railway system with solid rock. You probably don't have much sand (or coal to glass it with) but it just ain't the same.

Do you have enough light where the mob is spawning? Because that's the only thing I know of that effects spawning.

---

Saw this on another forum. A little too much work, but I like the general idea.

Edit: Jesus, that's a lot of gold, sek

Edit 2: I took some pics of my completed Borgia Tower, but I noticed I need to tweak the top yet – the proportions aren't right. Which is killer because it took some will to finally finish the thing and now I have tear apart half of the top again.

That's exactly what my wife said. I just can't get it out of my head, I guess...

Also, the one wall must be a bitch to play checkers on.

Ha...

If you look on the right side of the checkered wall, you'll see I forgot to tear down my cobblestone building platform. Will get to it eventually, I suppose.

Originally Posted by sek929

Don't feel bad, Jawbone, there's a reason I haven't posted my home base yet. It's a mis-mash of good design cobbled on top of the hole in the ground I dug my first few nights. AS long as it is functional at this point is all that matters. once you have enough raw materials you can build a second home proper, designing it from the get-go (like my water fortress). At any rate I really like the interior of your main floor.

Oh, I don't feel bad -- just a little irritated. The beautiful thing about the game is that there is so much space and so many resources, you can always start fresh a relatively short distance away. I had originally planned to use it as a modest home base while I harvested insane amounts of stone and glass, but I just kept building on top of it.

First off, is there any reason to craft iron tools? Besides the damage increase of the sword I'm not seeing any reason to spend iron on anything other than tracks, minecarts, and buckets. I keep a diamond pickaxe at the ready for harvesting gold, diamond, coal, etc at lightning speed, but if I am doing any serious mining I'll make 4 pickaxes (stone) and once they all wear out it is time to empty my inventory anyways

Iron's not plentiful enough for me to make iron tools. I did make an iron pickaxe or two until I can find some diamond. I just build a boatload of any one tool before I head out to spend all the day's light harvesting.

Secondly, I had an odd problem in my newest base/mine, which I've nicknamed Awesome Mine (more about that next). In my small (at most 10x6) main floor I couldn't sleep because a skeleton or zombie kept spawning, and I assure you the area was secure. So I walled off a tiny (4x3) area, installed a door and STILL the damned creatures kept spawning. I eventually turned the bottom floor into a storage crafting area, and built a second floor to house my bed, which has worked fine despite being attached to the first floor via a staircase.

I'm convinced there are several glitches that turn a protected area into a hellhole. I've been awakened twice from my bed in the midst of an attack (once by a zombie, once by a skeleton). After disposing of them, I checked my fortress, and there wasn't a single door open or space left unfilled by stone or glass. I still go to sleep with my sword equipped just in case.

Thirdly, my new mine has been better than my wildest dreams. I was just about to stop playing for the night in my new pit mine, when I hit some redstone, which I've been ignoring now, but figured at that depth more goodies may be there. Heard a faint trickle of water and starting chewing my way through to it. Found two separate caves, both with water and Lava, tons of Obsidian (not mined yet) and thought "Well, looks like I should see what this area has to offer. Starting clearing the space and, wow, I must have found over 50 iron, 15 diamond, 20 Gold, and easily over a hundred coal....this is just added to the amount my pit already yielded. Every wall that I dug into, every crevice that I found was littered with coal and iron. I'd say the possible space is 20% clear at this point, with alot of lava area to be cleared (more diamond!). So now I've got iron out the ass, diamond out the ass, turned the gold into blocks to decorate with (what other use is there?), and enough coal to max out my 10 furnaces with lots more in storage (thats 640 coal in use at the moment). I had to stop because I could have easily stayed awake until morning mining out that area.

Freakin' awesome find.

Do you guys not burn wood for charcoal and repeat the process several times to stock up? I'll spend a good two days cutting down trees, plant some saplings, and then convert about 1/4 of the wood into charcoal for my furnaces.

So my cart now takes me from the home base, past the water base, and into the first 'floor' of my pit mine. Next it will exit through the natural opening at the back of the first 'floor' and head off towards the adjacent surface cave. I finally have enough iron to make my wildest cart dreams a reality!

Can't wait for the pictures. Better yet, post a video. I made one and uploaded it, but immediately pulled it down due to a bad crop.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

I wasn't trying to make him feel bad. Just sayin'. I do find the double-bed decadent. I'm also curious who he's brining home with him ("Mr. Netherworld Pigman, has anyone told you how beautiful your eyes look in the glowstone light?")

I hate single beds in real-life, so I couldn't stand the idea of keeping that tiny twin bed-looking baby bed in my living area.

Also, to answer your other concern: there is an abundance of sheep around my fortress (white/black/grey...whatever floats your boat). Since I'm from the South, I treat my Minecraft world like it's based there as well.

Saw this on another forum. A little too much work, but I like the general idea.

I think there's a glitch bed-wise that is something like if the head of your bed is against a wall on the other side of which monsters can spawn you can wake up with them in your room. Not sure of the exact circumstances but for me changing the location of the head of the bed changed it.

If you look on the right side of the checkered wall, you'll see I forgot to tear down my cobblestone building platform. Will get to it eventually, I suppose.

I did the same thing on my pre-completion Borgia Tower pic. It's minecraft for scaffolding.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Oh, I don't feel bad -- just a little irritated. The beautiful thing about the game is that there is so much space and so many resources, you can always start fresh a relatively short distance away. I had originally planned to use it as a modest home base while I harvested insane amounts of stone and glass, but I just kept building on top of it.

Yeah I remodeled my home base a few times. I think it's hard to just abandon it and start fresh – it's the place that let you survive those first harsh nights and its the place where you started you future empire.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

IIron's not plentiful enough for me to make iron tools. I did make an iron pickaxe or two until I can find some diamond.

Iron is wasted on tools (save the sword) IMO. It's durability isn't significantly higher than stone when compared to rarity. I have converted to diamond shovels, though, mostly because it only requires one diamond for unmatched durability.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

II'm convinced there are several glitches that turn a protected area into a hellhole. I've been awakened twice from my bed in the midst of an attack (once by a zombie, once by a skeleton). After disposing of them, I checked my fortress, and there wasn't a single door open or space left unfilled by stone or glass. I still go to sleep with my sword equipped just in case.

Not the same problem as you guys but I found a pig in my home last night and I wasn't happy. I'll have to double-check I don't have a patch of dirt somewhere goading them to spawn.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

IDo you guys not burn wood for charcoal and repeat the process several times to stock up? I'll spend a good two days cutting down trees, plant some saplings, and then convert about 1/4 of the wood into charcoal for my furnaces.

Haven't needed to. And right now I have something like six furnaces spread across my travels that are all stocked with a minimum of coal.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

II hate single beds in real-life, so I couldn't stand the idea of keeping that tiny twin bed-looking baby bed in my living area.

Not saying it's a bad idea. I certainly ran that way on Sims.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

IAlso, to answer your other concern: there is an abundance of sheep around my fortress (white/black/grey...whatever floats your boat). Since I'm from the South, I treat my Minecraft world like it's based there as well.

Well played.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

IOooo...I might rip off some aspects of that...

I'm trying to figure out how to integrate some of those features into my fortress of doom. Actually, now that I think of it, I might be able to use that for another trick I wanted to do... [/mysterious]

It's two spaces from any area were they could spawn, so if you have a 1 thick wall you need the bed one space from the wall. I can into this with the tower at my sand mine. Woke up to a zombie. I'm not sure if thats lateral only or vertical. I'd have to experiment with that. I use charcoal almost exclusively so I have a double chest almost full of coal.

Notch is going to change torch behavior eventually and I suspect its because of how risk free it is to make allot of charcoal.

Iron tools are like wooden tools, the only reason you need a wooden pick is to make a stone one, well you need an iron pick to mine diamond. I don't have enough diamond so i'm mining redstone, gold and lapis with an iron one. Which I have a very tidy stockpile of now thanks to mining out the spawner.

Speaking of bummed, though, I am sad your covered your railway system with solid rock. You probably don't have much sand (or coal to glass it with) but it just ain't the same.

Your criticism has left me saddened and I will use my over-abundance of coal to make it glass, just for you.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

Edit: Jesus, that's a lot of gold, sek

After the initial first time I found Gold (and thought 'awwww yeeeaaah') I would have rather it be iron at this point, though gold blocks are pretty, in a 16-bit sort of way. Speaking of that, most of the texture packs, at least IMO, are ugly as hell, with the exception being the one that makes it cell-shaded. I prefer the original textures, to be perfectly honest.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Iron's not plentiful enough for me to make iron tools. I did make an iron pickaxe or two until I can find some diamond. I just build a boatload of any one tool before I head out to spend all the day's light harvesting.

Good, I wasted a decent amount of iron before I realized what a commodity it was, and how well stone tools work in the long run.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Do you guys not burn wood for charcoal and repeat the process several times to stock up? I'll spend a good two days cutting down trees, plant some saplings, and then convert about 1/4 of the wood into charcoal for my furnaces.

By the time I was smelting in any serious amount I already had three furnaces filled with coal. Coal has been the one resource I've been blessed with insane amounts of, besides cobblestone.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Can't wait for the pictures. Better yet, post a video. I made one and uploaded it, but immediately pulled it down due to a bad crop.

I planned on it once the trail was a little longer, plus right now I don't have the appropriate boosting setup at the new pit mine, and I don't think I'll need one there if I boost it from my planned new cave. In fact, once I'm boosted immediately after leaving my home, it seems I have a near-infinite amount of momentum, the other booster (outside my new base) is only for the return journey.

Originally Posted by hart

I think there's a glitch bed-wise that is something like if the head of your bed is against a wall on the other side of which monsters can spawn you can wake up with them in your room. Not sure of the exact circumstances but for me changing the location of the head of the bed changed it.

Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV

It's two spaces from any area were they could spawn, so if you have a 1 thick wall you need the bed one space from the wall. I can into this with the tower at my sand mine. Woke up to a zombie. I'm not sure if thats lateral only or vertical. I'd have to experiment with that.

Thats it then, my bed was against my outside wall, that's an irritating glitch, but it is good to know for future reference.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

Iron is wasted on tools (save the sword) IMO. It's durability isn't significantly higher than stone when compared to rarity. I have converted to diamond shovels, though, mostly because it only requires one diamond for unmatched durability.

I made a diamond shovel a while back, and that thing tears through harvesting sand. Lost it in one of my lava dips, and as punishment for such a foolish error I have forced myself to use only stone shovels until I have a larger stockpile of diamond. I also like the stone tools as gauges for how much work is being done. AS i said before, 4 pickaxes worn out, time to empty inventory, and when I get to making glass I burn out three shovels worth before returning.

I have yet to find any clay, which annoys me because I am already sick of using cobblestone as a building block. Now that I have a stream of coal flowing from all orifices I'd like to start making brick en masse.

Another annoyance has been exiting minecarts while they are still moving. I have two stops in between my new mine and my home, and exiting the cart has two problems. I always get hurt, and sometimes I am placed below the surface I am riding on....and hurt.

Any ideas for having 'stops' along one line of track? Besides the obvious splitting up the track system (and losing my booster momentum)

I agree on both counts. Maybe he could make charcoal a less desirable fuel to real coal, meaning that you could make crappier torches at the beginning of the game before you find coal, but would eventually have to use coal for reliable lighting.

If they run out that simply means I'd use Netherack for everything, which is far from an elegant solution.

One, it's amazing, and the creator deserves my money. Two, I've enjoyed it more than Homefront, which I paid full price for.

So Homefront is going back to GameStop (sorry dakar, I'm through with it) and the proceeds will go towards Minecraft. I have two questions.

How do I transfer my world over?

and

What is the situation with our NN Minecraft server? My map weights in at 13+ MB, but I'd hate to start from my main house again. How difficult is it to transfer over everything I've done? On that same vein, are we planning on importing as the start, or will be starting a fresh survival campaign together?

Your criticism has left me saddened and I will use my over-abundance of coal to make it glass, just for you.

My sense of aesthetics and critical eye will get the best of all of you.

Originally Posted by sek929

After the initial first time I found Gold (and thought 'awwww yeeeaaah') I would have rather it be iron at this point, though gold blocks are pretty, in a 16-bit sort of way.

Yeah I said something like that on the previous page. Diamonds may be rare bt they're super useful. Aside from the clock, gold is worthless.

Originally Posted by sek929

Speaking of that, most of the texture packs, at least IMO, are ugly as hell, with the exception being the one that makes it cell-shaded. I prefer the original textures, to be perfectly honest.

Eh, I've been looking into some seeing what I can get that won't kill my macbook. The graphics really take a toll on my eyes.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

If torches run out, I'm going to hang myself.

Well, we seem to have consensus.

Originally Posted by sek929

So Homefront is going back to GameStop (sorry dakar, I'm through with it) and the proceeds will go towards Minecraft.

Eh, it's a shame, but I can't say it isn't getting what it deserves. Playing alone will suck, but whatever.

Originally Posted by sek929

What is the situation with our NN Minecraft server? My map weights in at 13+ MB, but I'd hate to start from my main house again. How difficult is it to transfer over everything I've done? On that same vein, are we planning on importing as the start, or will be starting a fresh survival campaign together?

Jesus, no survival for me.

I just don't see how don't end up starting over again. Let's face it, how often will we see each other online anyway?

hat is the situation with our NN Minecraft server? My map weights in at 13+ MB, but I'd hate to start from my main house again. How difficult is it to transfer over everything I've done? On that same vein, are we planning on importing as the start, or will be starting a fresh survival campaign together?

I have a server up and running, I moved to it 100%. its 37MB. You can't merge worlds though. Even if you did bring in whole chunks the edged wouldn't line up well. As I said before I did use MCEdit to bring my castle over and for large above ground structures I'd be a good idea, for a pit mine your better off re-mining than importing an empty hole. I could make one with the editor easily enough, but you won't get any minerals from it.

I just don't see how don't end up starting over again. Let's face it, how often will we see each other online anyway?

You mean like log in at the same time or actually be at the same place on the map.

You mean like log in at the same time or actually be at the same place on the map.

Well, both. It'd be cool to go an adventure or have a community project.

Originally Posted by sek929

Thanks, it inspired me to re-think my plan for the section of track leading from Water Castle to the awesome pit.

About halfway done setting it underwater, what a pain in the ass BTW...

That's really impressive. How deep is it? What method did you use to build it?

(Another thing they need to add to this game: Scuba Gear. Something that can help you stay under water 10x longer than normal would be clutch. More use for metal!

---

Oh, regarding clay, it's another resource that's kinda scarce and is pretty much only found by traveling. I have something like two and half stacks of bricks right now.

I didn't play much last night. I was kinda flailing/aimless during my brief stint. I don't have enough resources at my new location to just build and I don't have clear plan anyway. At home I decided I should ditch the one idea I had in progress.

I'm also trying to concoct a plan to link the far-flung bases and it's really too much to even think about.

I did visit the Nether out of frustration and did manage to spot an acccessible glowstone deposit near the portal. I didn't realize mining glowstone gave so damn little. I don't even have enough to rebuild one block. Anyway, as I was close to exhausting the source I was given a nice welcoming party of two ghasts and I just hauled ass straight for the portal and got the fudge out of there.

Scuba gear, yes, and underwater lighting. Hmm. Can you put a torch inside glass? Hmm. I spotted some iron at the bottom of a pond it was annoying having to drain the pool and redig it out again. Scuba would help with that.

I'd be up for collaborating on something, it would be a learning experience to see you guys build things. You can tell me where to stack the cobblestone. I'm very good at hollowing out mountains.

I was thinking about this game vs Farmville the other day. Both are addictive, Farmville is obviously a much simpler game. However, if you could buy redstone and iron etc as add-ons, would you? I almost would. Sometimes gameplay feels stifled without those things. Yet it is much more satisfying to discover it yourself. I found enough iron to make a bucket. Yay!